My 75G starfire display refugium feeding by gravity my 150G starfire reef tank build up

[basile]

Feeding time

Feeding time at my place, sorry for the glass i didn't clean that day....

A newcomer just hanging in there

When i say everyboby's out i mean everybody , the cleaner wrasse is the one who seem to be designated to break up the big frozen piece in morcels for the other who're patiently waiting side by side. No arguments or bikering

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[basile]

A few improvements

The DC pumps i chose a year ago had a bad wrap all over and for cause mine stopped working one after another and had to be replaced, so as all other customer of Coralvue i asked for a replacement of my deffective pumps, and got it no problem.


From that

To that, much better.

I installed it no problem and for the long run to the refugium the full power was a great upgrade since the 3500 was barely enough ; but with the 5500 it makes a better circulation.

For the main tank however i started at level 2 which incidently was about the same flow as the 3500 as before. So i went to level 3, with a cool breeze in the tank, 4, with a nice wind, lol , and at leve5 well the whirlwind in there was just too much, even the snail had the white flag....


So brought it down to 3 which seemed ok at the time , however i notice that the drain section was spitting an awfull lot and the creep was all over the floor, so i whent back to level 2. i may put a plate of plexiglass over that area later on to be able to push it to 3.​

 

[basile]

New video

Unexpected show today


[video=youtube;0J6xJW9pTs8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J6xJW9pTs8&list=PLk_Pw-jAYdFfzK1jNhN7rAilGwHaEzvH5&index=18[/video]


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[basile]

New shots

Found new life;


A turnicate under the skirt of my fox coral

This guy is dancing in the corner,lol

My little angler is puffing up with all thoses pods;

My dragon face pipefish is stalking this bush lol.

The feather star is doing so so.

 

[basile]

Big blenny

Love the Lawnmower Blenny........good sized.

Yes he's big and he lets himself be clean by the wrasse, and she pounds him , bang i can see the whole body ripple, lol and he just stays put waiting for the job to be done. Buying that cleaner wrasse last week was one of my best buy i think.


She cleaned up the Hyppo tang of his spots( maybe i'm exagerating lol) but the ich is gone, my convic tang is no longer brushing up againts the sand, she must of clip what ever was bothering him. My Foxface has calmed down , i'm sure he was bothered by something; parasites or otherwise. The wrasse even cleans the filefish, well now he's so fat he's a filecabinet fish, and she eats flakes and the home made food as well. So i'm happy.




[video=youtube;Q-GLuydiMe4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-GLuydiMe4&index=13&list=PLk_Pw-jAYdFeoPJMOq1oDdy7r--xcU1MB[/video]

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[basile]

Catwalk

Ok i do a catwalk ever month actually this one's for you.


[video=youtube;VBdSqk78nHw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBdSqk78nHw[/video]

You and i sleep like that and we're roll at the emergency room

Trevy fountain cat style

Stairs masters , still behind the refugium, for the condo cats, use to be their room before the tanks came in.

It was my last , i was sitting on the throne just before that , he stole it from me

Best shot and purely by accident...

I call this particular angle the window washers, not that anything gets washed.....

I'm glad i have 2, i use to have one but he needed too much attention, together they play and have fun, 2 brothers, the first born and the last, Lulu the biggest first and Theo the last the fastest.

Lulu has a fetish with my underware.....

And always the clean ones ....

Sometimes in front of guest when i'm entertaining....realy embarrassing...





Do not disturb....

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[Sahin]

Your tanks are full of life, not sterile looking like many tanks found these days; lots of diversity I mean.

Your cats are very cute as well.

 

[basile]

Your tanks are full of life, not sterile looking like many tanks found these days; lots of diversity I mean.

Your cats are very cute as well.

Thanks for the kind words. I think its because i don't think only of my corals and my parameters( 0, nitrates and so on) . I feed my tanks and specially taking care of my CUC in general, because with a CUC alive and well , you can feed a lot and they take care of the left over.But they can't survive on that alone. You must see to their needs as well and i don't mix snails and hermiths. Its only snails and urchins, and serpent stars. hermiths are too agressive.

I also dose a lot of plankton for my pods and leave my sand undisturbed. So it contains a huge amounts of little clams, and worms, food for fish, hermits and everthing in between. Lots of pods there too. So when you have a healthy foundation to rely on the higher up is taken care off. My nitrates are at 10ppm and phosphates at 0.3ppm which for my display refugium is perfect i need that amount to keep my macroalgaes going or they starve. I even have to feed them sometimes because i almost lost the fuge at one point . I didn't have enough nitrates to feed it. Monitering is important because you get surges of plankton bloom which causes pods explosion and thats not good either. Everything is balanced. This week i found turnicate i have no idea where it came from. One thing is certain , if it started from a larvey it means my tank is rich in food and nutrients. And that how i like it.

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[basile]

My obsession

Well for those who have red my thread they'll think i'm obsessing over this, but with reason after you've seen the pictures.


He came to me in a little bag measuring 14 inch long

And this was is first step in the front lawn

Now this morning he got out for the first time in 2 months

Taking some rays early this morning

The NPS zone basking in the sun quite the spectacle, the flame scallop wasn't impressed.

It was moving so i thought it was his head, turns out the pellet was a dead give away the *** was near.

I've seen other cukes and i must say this one has a better texture and color than most.

Little pods are racing along his spine

And little white file worms are climbing from behind.

Here we see his pellet from his pit

As we all know it started from Sh..

As he stretched his legs , i beg the question why

At 25 " the competition make me feel inadequate.

i'm not a poet i'm just desperate.

When is he going to split

Before i have a fit!




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[MrDJeep123]

It's nice to see that someone's tiger tail is out and about. I've had one that I haven't seen for quite sometime. Half the time I wonder what the heck it's doing. I seen my porcelain crab the other night I put in the tank near 8 months ago. :/

Your tank is coming along rather nicely. :rockon:

 

[basile]

It's nice to see that someone's tiger tail is out and about. I've had one that I haven't seen for quite sometime. Half the time I wonder what the heck it's doing. I seen my porcelain crab the other night I put in the tank near 8 months ago. :/

Your tank is coming along rather nicely. :rockon:

Thank you , yes its actually maturing now very well. Specially since i've turned my skimmer OFF for 12 hours a day now i get much more out of the food and dosing, less waste.

 

[basile]

Early morning Rays

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[MrDJeep123]

Thank you , yes its actually maturing now very well. Specially since i've turned my skimmer OFF for 12 hours a day now i get much more out of the food and dosing, less waste.

I've never seen the point of having it run full time. Nice vid of the star, by the way. I've always been fascinated with them. I just have not come across any.

 

[basile]

I've never seen the point of having it run full time. Nice vid of the star, by the way. I've always been fascinated with them. I just have not come across any.

I'm really not sure about her health really. From my readings these things should be left in the ocean and no permits should be given for these things to be harvest. I only took her because , having red that they need high quantity of nutrients and feeding on particules in the water columb i thought as the owner , who knew my tank ; i could save her. He was well aware that she was shrinking in his shop.


So the jury is still on , as of if she's still on deathrow in my tank or not. I honestly think she has shrunk still since i got her. And from the literature they're doomed in are tank no matter what. Several threads and previous owners are all reporting the same fate of their's after several months. Shrinkage till it disapears. Its very sad , to see i'm trying my best spot feeding when i see her , but when she hides under the rocks its beyond my reach. I dose like usual. But not sure its enough.


A lesson to all do not encourage this trade. PLEASE!!!!! I'm seeing Basket seastar now as well same thing. are we going to learn???

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[MrDJeep123]

I think it would make for a great case for more research. Why do certain animals fail in the aquarium and not the ocean. I mean even with the biggest of tanks, animals still succumb to whatever it is that ails them. Unless I've missed something very specific.

 

[basile]

The Dom Pérignon Doser

A bit of build up today.


I wanted to dose my mixture of ;

That i mix every week in a bottle but have to keep refrigerated all week and dose 3 times a day at 20ml each time with a turkey baster. So the refrigeration would of met to buy a whole fridg for a smal bottle and a whole new doser to put inside the fridge, 2 additional plug sockets and a lot of room space wasted not to mention the electricty bill for a full flecge frig.


So i did it my own style, i present the James Bond version, if you like the Dom Pérignon doser;

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If your going to do it do it in style i had an old wine cooler, never used,lol

Compact! energy efficient and stylish! Hey the stuff in it is a good brew and is about the right price for a Dom Pérignon...... spare no expense.....


Here at inovotech we aim to inovate!!!:blob:

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[basile]

Almost a year already.

Almost a year already!!




Yes a year ago i had the big

Kick OFF thats right; and its wasn't always fun and games;

Although i had planed most of my build, their was lots of;


pulling;

Dropping

Breaking and running

Screaming;

Pulling and screaming

even slapping around

But with lots of experimentation and daring

i got there eventualy.
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[basile]

Almost a year already.part2

It took some capital

This hobby is already full of danger as it is

I'd like to thank every body here who took the time to help me and share

Knowledge or frienship

Or just a good laugh

and without futher do( i'm waiting on the maid to finish cleaning)

Here come my update video for the year 2014

Ah Made it!!

[video=youtube;KW6FVujdAZw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW6FVujdAZw&index=20&list=PLk_Pw-jAYdFfzK1jNhN7rAilGwHaEzvH5[/video]

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[basile]

Natural formation

Many ask me why did i do or where did i get the idea for a stalactite in the fist place. The more cynical just say stalactite don't exist in the water.


i got the inspiration from these;

I think mine is pretty acurate.....

And i got the NPS zone from these;

So i think i've combine the two stalactite and NPS pretty good, from nature's point of view.

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[basile]

Well i found my crinoid still at the same place now for a week now , but this morning she's got her arms extended. Which means she's feeding. According to litterature when in a ball they're resting or protecting themselves, but when fully extended they're feeding and uses the currents to do so.




" Feeding
Crinoids are passive suspension feeders that consume food items captured from surrounding waters, being passive because they don't generate any sort of current themselves. Instead, they let the water bring food to them. However, they can change their location, overall orientation, and arm and pinnule extension to maximize food collection under different environmental conditions. Also note that some species apparently prefer strong currents while others prefer lower to weak currents (Meyer 1982, Meyer et al. 1984, Baumiller 1997).


When feeding, the adhesive podia emerging from the arms and pinnules snare food items, sometimes with the assistance of mucous threads, and then pass them into the grooves that line them. Cilia in the grooves then guide the items to the mouth where they are ingested (Nichols 1960, Byrne & Fontaine 1981, Meyer 1982, Holland et al. 1986).


So, what is it that they eat? Lots of things, with diets being highly variable from species to species. Known food items include: particles of detritus, ciliated protozoans, diatoms, foraminifera, and crustacean zooplankton, as well as several types of eggs, embryos, and larvae, with most all items being in the range of 0.05 to 0.4mm in size (Rutman & Fishelson 1969, West 1978, Meyer 1979 & 1982, La Touche & West 1980, Holland et al. 1991, Fossa & Nilsen 2002, Kitazawa et al. 2007)."


"Behavior
Crinoids typically sit in place with their arms extended to feed. However, as noted above, they can ball up when not feeding by rolling their arms up into tight coils, or by wrapping them around their body. Feather stars can also crawl around by using the cirri on their underside, and as mentioned above, sea lilies can also crawl about using their arms and/or the cirri on their stalks. This allows crinoids to move to a location where the current is suitable for feeding and/or to avoid predation."


Aquarium Invertebrates: A Good Look at the Crinoids ? Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog


So imagine my delight this morning. I'll be adding to my dosing suppliment, the following;


-OysterFeast
-Cyclop-eeze
-what ever i can find for filter feeders that will suit them.


I have now all the fauna marin filterfeeders product and sponge foods, in a mix and dosing every hour, so it should do ok . The socks are OFF the the responce of the feather star is encouraging.​